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The benefits of a hard conker are that it will cause a lot of shock on impact and break the shell of your opponent’s conker. However, it is vulnerable to cracking itself as it’s going to be more brittle.

If you’re a more defensive conkistadore then you’ll be looking at the softer option.

This will allow the shell to absorb your opponent’s attacks like the suspension of a car going over a pothole.

A competitor takes a shot during the 51st World Conker Championships (Image: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

General tips:

Make the string hole as small as possible. The hole is going to be one of the weakest points for cracks. We want the conker equivalent of the exhaust port on the Death Star, not a train tunnel through a cup.

Don’t use wire as it can be dangerous. It’ll be more likely to cut the conker from the inside and it won’t absorb any impact.

As with people, the older your conkers are, the harder they get. The long game pays off in this business, so keep some for next year.

The traditional method:

Soak it in vinegar, then bake it in an oven at 120 C for no longer than two hours.

Some young conker competitors (Image: Phil Medgett)

Common problems with the traditional method:

Pickling it too much can rot the inside. Although you can coat it repeatedly, we’re not here to paint, we’re here to do battle.

Baking makes the outside brittle and if you over bake the inside of your conkers will char like burned toast.

The whole thing takes ages. Boring.

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Some kids have been smearing their chestnuts in hand cream . This softens the shell so it can take more impact (see "soft approach" above). Apparently that does the job against the traditional vinegar method.

Varnish. This makes it shiny and tough, but it could take a while depending on how dedicated you are.

Remember that these things are designed to break at some stage, so don’t spend your life making it too pretty. Varnish is also detectable, which is apparently a big thing in the world of professional conkers.

A conker on a string (Image: Getty Images)

There have also been cases of people getting disqualified from national championships because they vacuum-impregnated their conker with epoxy resin, which we think is a bit industrial for your average playground, but you never know.

Injecting the conkers with glue. The idea is that the glue will keep your conker tough from the inside, like a vaccine, or a cushion. We suggest filling the string hole with glue to minimise air gaps.